


(we are) two made one without break or join

by daikonjou



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball, Loveless
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-03-11
Updated: 2013-03-29
Packaged: 2017-12-04 23:57:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/716533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daikonjou/pseuds/daikonjou
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A comedy* in drabbles set in fair (modern day) Tokyo in which the only feuds immediately known to the players are those between rival basketball clubs and the most pressing challenge Midorima Shintarou faces is dealing with the Name on his hip (and the frivolous boy marked with its match). To be fair, it's a bit of a challenge, but he's stuck with Takao anyway. It... might not be such a terrible thing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. the trumpet player girl classmate played taps for the plush seal

**Author's Note:**

> * - comedy in the sense that it's not a tragedy: nobody dies or faces a lifetime of trauma, unless you count the one time Miyaji-senpai walked in on what looked like Takao and Midorima halfway to losing their ears
> 
> cheers to Lys ap Adin who may have graciously (and entirely accidentally) pinged me with the plotbunny initially. said bunny is currently merrily gnawing on me still, so I'll just run with this as far as I can take it--which might mean a number of things but is currently more or less "how many ficlets can I crank out before the bunny starts thinking I taste boring?" There... might be some edits made from the version on my tumblr.

Midorima's Name doesn't appear until after he's graduated from Teiko. It's a line of Roman characters on his hip that he very nearly doesn't notice at all until the day Cancer is in last place and he spills ink all over himself. Most of it comes off just fine, and only his shirt is a total loss--thank goodness for the sensibility of black slacks--but there's what looks like spots of ink that just won't scrub off.  
  
 _Seamless_ , the spots say, when he puts his glasses on after his bath and the world comes back into proper focus. The words come almost automatically-- _two made one without break or join, a true union with no evidence that one had ever been two_. Rough, but it would do for now. He wasn't fool enough to rush into spell battle crippled by the handicap he'd receive for not having his Sacrifice with him, and he had ample time to refine it.  
  
He's done his share of practice in the wordspell simulators, and then some. He is a gifted Fighter--this was acknowledged even before his Name appeared. He has done all that is humanly possible. The rest he would leave to fate.  
  
Fate turns out to have a terrible sense of humor. When he walks into the gym used by Shuutoku's basketball club the first day his Name twinges. One of the other freshman rookies (a no-namer who wore a headband to push his dark hair out of his eyes) flattens his ears in pain at about the same time, clapping a hand over his own hip on the same side that Midorima had.  
  
When he looked up, his startled steel-blue eyes met Midorima's horrified green.

  
\--

  
His family name is Takao, given name Kazunari. He has a Name in the same place Midorima does, which is itself unbelievable. Just in case it's an enormous coincidence, though, Midorima drags him off to the locker room to check after their first practice is over. He can afford to delay extra shooting practice for a little while--this is far more pressing.  
  
"Show me your Name," Midorima demands, as soon as they've got some modicum of privacy.  
  
Takao raises an eyebrow at him, then just grins and drops his shorts. He tugs down his boxer-briefs enough to show Midorima the dark lettering along his hip spelling S-E-A-M-L-E-S-S, shameless enough to not seem to care that by the time the Name is fully visible Midorima is also getting quite a good look at his dick. "Your turn," he says cheerfully, pulling his underwear and shorts back up.  
  
Midorima hesitates for only a second before pulling down his own shorts and underwear, taking care not to show Takao anything unnecessary. "Here."  
  
"It really is the same." Takao peers at the letters on his skin and carefully rests a fingertip on the first S. The resulting jolt that runs through them both knocks Takao off his feet. Midorima hurriedly yanks his bottoms up.  
  
For a moment, neither of them says a word. Midorima wets his lips with his tongue, takes a deep breath, and runs through spell routines in his head until he feels his ears relax a little.  
  
"Guess you're the real deal," Takao whispers from the floor, sounding a little dazed. His tail bristles a little in shock. "I never dreamed _you_ would be my Fighter, though."  
  
"You're my Sacrifice."  
  
"Looks like it. I didn't know Midorima Shintarou had a Name." Takao grins crookedly, like he's discovered a great joke only to find that the punchline had been him all along.  
  
"I don't even know who you are," Midorima says, still gobsmacked at the fact that it hadn't been a massive coincidence after all. What were the odds that a Named pair would end up in the same high school, much less the same club?  
  
"Ouch! Shin-chan, that's mean. I just told you my name!" Takao complains, but he's lost the I-have-discovered-that-I-am-a-cosmic-joke edge to his smile.  
  
"Don't call me that." Midorima half-suspects it's landed on his own face. Then again, Cancer had been in last place today (again--he's beginning to have the suspicion that it will always be so when it comes to his Name), and the day's lucky item (a plush seal toy) had unceremoniously fallen apart on him around lunchtime. If that hadn't been a portent of ill luck, Midorima wasn't quite sure what was.  
  
"I guess we're stuck together, hm?" Takao gets up, offers him his hand. "Please take care of me, partner."


	2. the soft blue terrycloth felt like burlap in his hands next to the silk of Takao's ears

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set after Midorima and Takao's acceptance into Shuutoku's first string. Takao has a lot of questions and grills Midorima for the answers after late practice one night. (He might also have a bad habit of lounging around in just a towel after his post-late practice shower.)

"Shin-chan, what exactly is my job as a Sacrifice, anyway?" Takao asks, straddling a bench in the Shuutoku locker room. Water drips from his hair and slides down his torso in little rivulets from his shower, disappearing into the towel wrapped dangerously low around his hips. His tail flicks restlessly, left to air-dry above the terrycloth. Midorima hesitates for a second, then swallows and firmly looks away to finish buttoning up his uniform shirt and gakuran.  
  
"Get dressed, Takao. You'll catch a cold."  
  
"'m still wet, Shin-chan. Anyway, you didn't answer my question."  
  
"How did you even know the word if you don't know what it means?" Midorima puts aside the roll of tape for his fingers and seizes his own towel. He walks over to where Takao's sitting and starts scrubbing Takao's hair and ears dry. "Don't expect me to do this for you all the time. I'm not your mother," he adds.  
  
Takao laughs. "My mother stopped drying my hair when I was eight, Shin-chan. You said that last time too."  
  
"That's why you need to stop lounging around the locker room in just a towel after you shower! You're going to catch a cold and--" _you're a surprisingly good fit for a partner, I'm a stronger Fighter when I have you_ "--and it'll be a huge inconvenience for me!"  
  
"Okay, okay! Anything you say, Mr. Ace." Takao grins. "You still didn't answer my question, though."  
  
"What do you know about spell battles?" Midorima says, rubbing the towel over Takao's ears longer than strictly necessary just to be thorough. Takao's tail curls a little and stills.  
  
"Mmm," Takao hums, "just what I read on the BBS about them? Like that they happen between Named pairs. The Fighters don't brawl, they _talk_ , and the good ones are really wordy." He stops for a moment, and Midorima can practically hear the gears clicking in his head. "Also, Named pairs tend to end up going out at some point and losing their ears to each other."  
  
There is no dignified response to this. Midorima fights the furious blush on his face and whaps Takao upside the head, reclaiming his towel.  
  
"Ow!"  
  
"Th--that has nothing to do with spell battles. Even you should know that, Takao."  
  
"Hehe. Is that right, Shin-chan?"  
  
"That's… that's just a myth that's been going around since the organization that was keeping the existence of spell battles and Named pairs obscure collapsed. Just because some of the Named pairs bonded beyond working together doesn't mean they all… go out."  
  
Takao swings his outside leg over the bench so he can turn to face Midorima, mouth curving into the kind of smile that promises mischief. "So, being your Sacrifice means I'm your destined partner and future husband, right?"  
  
"This is why you're no good."  
  
"Ouch! How mean, Shin-chan. So, tell me what it means?"  
  
Midorima sits down next to Takao on the bench and produces a cloth from his pocket to clean his glasses with. "A spell battle is waged between two Named pairs and lasts until one Sacrifice is unable to continue. The Fighter's job is to use his wordspells effectively to minimize the damage his own Sacrifice takes while maximizing the damage on his opponent's Sacrifice. A Sacrifice determines how long his pair can continue in battle, which is why traditionally he and not the Fighter unit is considered the higher-ranked of a pair."  
  
"So," Takao says, thoughtful, "your job is to get wordy at the enemy, and I play support. Doesn't sound too different from what we usually do."  
  
"I'm told it's very painful," Midorima mutters, dourly. He puts his glasses back on, fans his fingers out over the bench.  
  
"I'm sure most Sacrifices don't have basketball practice at Shuutoku either. If I can handle running until I don't have anything left to throw up I'm pretty sure I can handle whatever some Fighter throws at me." Takao meanders his right hand along the wood of the bench until it finds Midorima's left; he touches their fingertips together. "Besides, it's not like I could quit even if I wanted to. My Name isn't going to go away, and neither is yours."  
  
"You're taking other Fighter units too lightly."  
  
"They won't be you," Takao says. His ears flick forward. "You're impossible sometimes but even though you're a genius you still put a lot of hard work into everything you do. That's why I promised myself I'd work harder than you, and make you acknowledge me--but then this happened, and by the time we made it onto the team you'd already acknowledged me for something else."  
  
"There are four others like me," Midorima says, mulling over what exactly Takao meant by "make you acknowledge me." He has no memory of Takao from before their first meeting at Shuutoku.  
  
"Oh, they're Fighters too? Man, you Miracle guys are something else."  
  
"You're too relaxed about this, Takao."  
  
Takao wets his lips with his tongue. "Hey Shin-chan," he says, "what does Seamless mean?"  
  
"You need to stop falling asleep and pay more attention in English."  
  
"Hehe. If you were watching me sleep, you weren't paying attention either, were you?"  
  
"I was _not_ watching you sleep," Midorima retorts, pushing his glasses up his nose. "Get dressed. We'll talk on the way home."  
  
"Whatever you say, Mr. Ace."


	3. they have already forgotten that they too were once green first-years

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Seamless ends up in their first real spell battle. It is not much fun for anybody involved, even if neither side is creative enough to use spells that leave scars.
> 
> (featuring a mostly unimportant OC fighter/sacrifice pair that may or may not talk too much)

Summer heat beats down sticky-hot upon them by the time Shuutoku finally permits the change to summer uniforms. Midorima continues to button his uniform shirt up to the collar as a matter of stubborn pride.  
  
Takao wears thin v-neck tee shirts under his uniform shirt and leaves the first two buttons undone as a matter of course, though then again Midorima has yet to see him with his gakuran properly buttoned up either. When he stretches his arms up and yawns, his untucked shirt rides up. Sometimes the v-neck does too, baring a strip of lean muscle.  
  
Midorima tries not to look at Takao too much when he yawns. It’s distracting, for one, and even if he’s become somewhat accustomed to Takao’s near-constant presence (at least, enough so that he can work around him, or with him as necessary) he still laughs too quickly and says foolish things without any shame whatsoever.  
  
After late practice one day Takao yawns and stretches in a slightly more exaggerated manner than usual. “I’m beat,” he says, and grins. “Hey, Shin-chan, want to get something to eat on the way home? It’s your turn to pick.”  
  
“We’re still playing rock-paper-scissors for the rider’s spot, you know.”  
  
“I know, I know. What are we having?”  
  
Midorima pauses, long enough that Takao tilts his head at him and his smile goes a little wry.  
  
“Why don’t you decide on the way to the rickshaw?”

  
—

  
The problem with putting off decisions, naturally, is that every so often the universe decides it is high time to interfere with the process of making said decisions. Midorima stops Takao with a hand on his shoulder when the signal of an unfamiliar Fighter registers; seconds later Takao winces, his smile sliding off his face to be replaced by that keen focused look he got during practice games.  
  
His ears are standing straight up. “What _is_ that, Shin-chan?”  
  
“A Named pair,” Midorima says. “They’re close, too. The Fighter is of about middling strength. We should finish them quickly and leave.”  
  
Two students from the private academy two train stations down the line round the corner of Shuutoku’s outer wall. The shorter of the pair frowns, her ears flicking back and forth. “That’s rather rude, Midorima Shintarou.”  
  
“We know you’re a basketball prodigy, but as a Fighter you’re just some uppity first-year with wet ears. We’ll teach you to take us lightly,” growls the taller one. His ears are missing.  
  
“Do I know you?” Midorima asks. Despite all his care not to let his ears or tail express anything unnecessary, the fur of his tail bristles.  
  
Next to him, Takao’s ears have flicked halfway back, not quite flat but getting there. The smile that has slipped back onto his face is only superficially friendly, Midorima notes, and all teeth.  
  
“We know you’re a Fighter,” says the girl, “so that must be your Sacrifice. What’s the matter, couldn’t find one at Teiko? There are the _weirdest_ rumors about that place on the boards, you know. Like how you had a blank Sacrifice and just passed him around between all the Fighters whose Names had shown up—”  
  
“Hey,” Takao interrupts, grin positively feral, “we were going to dinner before you interrupted. It’d be nice if we could leave before everything closes because you stood here talking all night.” He couldn’t have noticed the way Midorima clenched his jaw at her words—could he?  
  
“Shut it, Ears,” the girl says.  
  
“Hey, Shin-chan, did you hear that? She called me _Ears_. That’s not our Name, is it?”  
  
“You talk too much, Takao,” Midorima scolds, but there’s no bite in it. He untapes his left hand and puts the tape lengths in his pocket. Thrusting his now bare left hand forward, he intones, “We declare spell battle. Engage battle.”  
  
Takao’s hand finds his unoccupied right and squeezes tightly.  
  
“We accept. Engage battle!” the girl says. There’s a crackling about her speech, a faint popping energy characteristic of spell battle ritual words. Midorima tastes it on the air and sucks in a breath.  
  
 _“We are Seamless,”_ he says, and Takao squeezes his hand tighter. _“We are two made one without break or join, a flawless union of souls mandated by fate.”_  
  
“I am Sakano!” the girl shouts. The boy smiles, expression a mirror of Takao’s earlier toothy grin.  
  
“And I am Araragi!” the boy chimes in, without missing a beat.  
  
“And _we are Merciless!_ ” they cry, voices blending in uncanny unison.  
  
 _“We will tear you apart!”_ Sakano yells, and immediately the restraints come flying out of the twilight, locking onto Takao’s neck.  
  
Takao drops Midorima’s hand, fingers flying up to scrabble against the hard metal suddenly tight around his throat. “Shin-chan,” he rasps out, and takes a shuddering breath.  
  
 _“Fate is not with you, for your attacks do nothing,”_ Midorima incants, power fizzing in his vocal cords as he speaks. _“The winds of fortune turn aside your power and reflect it stronger back upon your partner.”_  
  
The heavy collar on Takao’s neck unlatches with a click and multiplies, flying back towards Araragi.  
  
 _“A defensive wall rises!”_ Sakano shouts.  
  
 _“The winds bear your misfortune and become tides that no wall can stop,”_ Midorima interjects.  
  
Merciless’ Sacrifice screams when the cuffs lock around his wrists and around his neck. A series of belts lock over his ribcage, turning his scream into a painful wheeze.  
  
“Keep it together, Yuuji!” Sakano yells. _“Darkness to rob you of your senses, a hundred knives to carve away your sanity!”_  
  
 _“A thousand blades spark flames to sunder the darkness and consume you until you are ash; a thousand years of searing light too strong to behold to destroy your petty knives and take your sight.”_  
  
 _“A blinding reflection from a mirror’s jagged edges, dust to choke your flame until it gutters and goes out!”_ Chains and cables cross the field every which way, turning the battlefield into a mad patchwork of metal and the dark, unforgiving material that made up the restraints. Takao chokes against the collar again binding his throat, unable to pull on it for more breathing room with the chains yanking his wrists behind him.  
  
 _“The tides of fate refract your stolen light and wash away the dust, your mirror drops in the waves and you cannot find it to undo your seven years of misfortune. Your cards are bared to the world and your destiny is Death’s rictus, bony fingers reaching for your dry throats—”_  
  
 _“A swift blow to shutter your sight and clip your wings!”_ Sakano croaks, and Midorima’s caught off-guard mid-incantation one second too long.  
  
Metal closes over Takao’s eyes; his mouth moves but no sound comes out. The impact of a bar knocks his knees out from under him, chains quickly binding his legs to the metal.  
  
 _“A plague upon you of your greatest fears,”_ Midorima utters. _“All your preparations are in vain, all your effort is wasted, and that which you proposed has been ignored by God and all creation. Your fate is sealed.”_  
  
“Ah!” Sakano cries, matched eerily by Araragi’s scream as a new swarm of restraints cocoon him.  
  
The bindings on Takao melt away into a dark haze, soon dissipated. Takao collapses like a puppet with cut strings. He blinks once, twice, then slides his eyes shut.  
  
He doesn’t respond when Midorima shakes him, lightly, and then a little more violently. “Takao? Oi, Takao!”

  
—

  
“Shin-chan?” Takao whispers, after far too long. Midorima looks up from his phone, in the middle of dialing for the paramedics.  
  
“Look at me,” Midorima says, putting his phone down. When Takao can’t seem to find him properly, he sits him up and turns his face towards him with his hands. “Look at me.”  
  
Gradually, Takao’s pupils settle on Midorima. “Did we win?”  
  
“Yes.”  
  
“Oh good. I don’t know if I’m in any shape to pedal the bike, though. Sorry, Shin-chan.”  
  
“You did well,” Midorima says.  
  
Takao winces and cracks a grin that comes out more like a grimace. “You weren’t kidding when you said it’d hurt.” He inspects his unblemished wrists. “Good thing it doesn’t leave any marks. I don’t know what I’d tell my parents if I came home looking like I’d gotten… eaten. It wouldn’t explain why I still had my ears, but you know. The principle of the thing and all.”  
  
Midorima flushes red and flicks Takao in the forehead.  
  
“Ow! Is that any way to treat your Sacrifice after he’d endured all that for you?” Takao demands. There’s no real reproach in his tone, even if it is a little off; the accompanying chuckle sounds tired.  
  
“… Thank you,” Midorima says, stiffly. He leans in, gently presses his forehead against Takao’s.  
  
“Hey,” Takao says. There’s an awkward pause. “…Hey, Shin-chan, I was kidding. It’s okay. I know. Um. You’re welcome, I guess.”  
  
“I’m… I’m checking to make sure you don’t have a fever. In case you’ve gone into shock but didn’t realize.”  
  
“What happened to the other two?” Takao asks, instead of trying to tease him like usual.  
  
“The Fighter took her partner and left.”  
  
“Forgot their names already?” A little smile plays over Takao’s mouth, rueful.  
  
“I remember the one that matters. We defeated Merciless today.”  
  
” _Merciless_ , huh?” Takao blinks. “English again? What does that even mean?”  
  
“It’s the kind of name that would have fit well at Teiko,” Midorima says, pulling away. “In order to properly uphold a motto such as ‘One hundred battles, one hundred victories,’ one must never hold back. One must never show any mercy, and crush one’s opponents with all the power at one’s disposal.”  
  
Takao’s lips curve up, then down, then simply flatten out, as if he can’t decide what expression he really ought to be wearing. “Ah. I think I understand now.”  
  
“Do you?”  
  
“Perhaps Merciless ought to have been your Name, Shin-chan. I still remember that beautiful three-point buzzer beater.” Takao says.  
  
“… I don’t remember ever playing you.” Midorima studies Takao’s face more carefully.  
  
“Of course not.” Takao’s ears flick forward. “We were just small fry. I didn’t expect you to remember me at all, but after that I trained and trained so that one day I could beat you. Of course, then we ended up on the same team.”  
  
“So now what do you want?”  
  
“I promised, didn’t I? That I’d send you a roaring pass one day, that I’d make you acknowledge me as an equal? That hasn’t changed just because of the Names, Shin-chan.” Takao stretches his arms up, yawns widely. Under his shirt, his v-neck rides up. He takes his time bringing his hands back down to tug it back into place.  
  
“Your Name ought to properly have been Shameless,” Midorima says, his tail canting itself upwards and curling at the tip.  
  
“Shin-chan, why are you going all red?”  
  
“Never mind that. You should come have dinner at my house tonight, it’s too late to be walking around.” Midorima says. He looks down at his phone and realizes what time it is. “… Perhaps you should spend the night, as well.”  
  
Takao gapes at him for a bare moment before closing his mouth. “Midorima,” he says, sly, “are you finally showing me your _dere_ side?”  
  
“I am doing the responsible thing as your Fighter unit and making sure you properly recover from the spell battle,” Midorima tries to say calmly, but it’s a half-sputter and Takao won’t stop laughing. “Inter High preliminaries are coming up soon, and if you’re hindered by residual damage from spell battling you won’t be able to play at your best—shut up!”  
  
“Ah, sorry Shin-chan,” Takao says, when he’s finally caught his breath. “You pick the oddest times not to be honest about your feelings, you know? But I guess I like that about you.”  
  
“Don’t be an idiot.” Midorima pushes his glasses up his nose, shuts and pockets his phone, and fishes out the tape so he can wrap his fingers back up again.  
  
“Yes, yes, whatever you say, Mr. Ace.”


	4. Interlude - there are no written records left, only whispers and rumors about seven moons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set somewhat prior to Midorima's enrollment at Shuutoku. Kuroko has some questions, and so far none of the books he's thumbed through at the library or really anywhere else have yielded much in terms of answers, so he takes to the internet. As it turns out, there are a lot of stories--one just has to ask the right people.
> 
> (featuring a bunch of mostly unimportant netizen OC's and Kuroko's unfortunately obvious net handle tastes)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this isn't a real chapter, exactly, but I posted this on my tumblr already and figured I might as well crosspost it. Have some worldbuilding! Kind of.

-[tetsuya965] has entered the room-  
  
[tetsuya965] Good evening.  
  
[makimaki] hey!  
  
[sacriqueen] it's a nice night out, isn't it?  
  
[10blackerasers] don't hit on the newbie, sacriqueen!  
  
>> too early for natsume soseki. way too early!  
  
[sacriqueen] shut up eraserhead! i was just saying it was a nice night out!!  
  
[makimaki] sorry tetsuya, they're just excited to have someone new in chat. the bbs is pretty quiet lately.  
  
[10blackerasers] who're you calling eraserhead, queenie?  
  
[tetsuya965] I don't mind waiting until they calm down a little.  
  
[sacriqueen] you're eraserhead until further notice, eraserhead!  
  
[tetsuya965] I do have a question, though.  
  
[makimaki] no expert here, but i'll do my best to answer you if I can!  
  
[tetsuya965] Thank you, maki-san.  
  
[makimaki] lololol i'm not a -san, a -kun's just fine.  
  
[tetsuya965] I will be sure to remember that, maki-kun.  
  
[10blackerasers] hey don't forget meee  
  
[sacriqueen] who could forget you, idiot? eraserhead's the loudest one here!  
  
[10blackerasers] you picking a fight, queenie?  
  
[tetsuya965] I was wondering how it was possible to tell a Sacrifice from a Fighter before their Name appears.  
  
[makimaki] loll that's a hard question! i think we kind of just all have a sense for it. usually your gut feeling's right. oh, but if you run into a blank fighter they definitely feel blank.  
  
[tetsuya965] What do you mean by "feel blank," maki-kun?  
  
[makimaki] well see, a fighter and a sacrifice come together as a fated pair, right? so when you meet one or the other even if their name hasn't appeared anywhere yet there's a feeling like… piano wire, or a red string.  
  
[tetsuya965] I was always under the impression that the red string was just a metaphor.  
  
[makimaki] no, it's a real thing. pairs can see them, though I guess they aren't actually red. they connect you to your partner, though they don't usually appear until after you've been paired. you can sense them though, like the thread's stretching out somewhere. blank fighters don't have their own threads, exactly.  
  
[tetsuya965] I see.  
  
[sacriqueen] like maki-tan's saying, blank fighters don't have a thread until they pair with a sacrifice.  
  
[makimaki] maki-tan???  
  
[sacriqueen] isn't it cuter this way? <3  
  
[makimaki] iyaaaaaan! >A<  
  
[sacriqueen] don't worry maki-tan, i'll take responsibility!  
  
[makimaki] i don't want you to!! >A<  
  
[tetsuya965] What if the Sacrifice doesn't have a Name?  
  
[10blackerasers] i've never heard of a blank sacrifice before.  
  
[sacriqueen] do blank sacrifices exist?  
  
[makimaki] but it's always the sacrifice who connects a thread to the fighter, so if the sacrifice is blank…  
  
[tetsuya965] … If the Sacrifice is blank, he doesn't have a thread?  
  
[makimaki] well, i've never met a blank sacrifice so I wouldn't know! but blank fighters don't have threads of their own, so…  
  
[tetsuya965] I see.  
  
[10blackerasers] i don't think it's only sacrifices who can connect threads, though!  
  
[sacriqueen] what makes you say that, eraserhead?  
  
[10blackerasers] aaaagh, quit calling me that queenie!  
  
>> no, but the strongest bonds are two-sided  
  
>> both the fighter and the sacrifice have reached out to connect to each other  
  
>> those are the pairs you don't want to challenge out of hand, 'cuz even if one of them's alone to start with their partner will show up quickly  
  
>> cause they'll hear them calling.  
  
[makimaki] so maybe it's not that blanks don't have threads, but that they're just disconnected and that's why they're not immediately visible?  
  
[10blackerasers] maybe? but i think maybe blanks have more than one thread. that's why they can pair with anyone, regardless of their partner's name.  
  
[makimaki] ooh, I didn't think of that!  
  
[sacriqueen] wow, eraserhead and maki-tan really know their stuff, huh?  
  
[makimaki] iyaaaaaan stop calling me that sac-tan  
  
>> more seriously though, maybe then we're not seeing the threads then because they're infinite  
  
[sacriqueen] sac-tan?!? Σ(-`Д´-ﾉ；)ﾉ  
  
[makimaki] but I think you see one after the blank's been paired, right?  
  
[10blackerasers] yeah, as long as the named partner's made an effort to connect properly i think!  
  
[makimaki] right, i think that was the case with l*veless…  
  
[10blackerasers] those were unusual circumstances to begin with. anyway, it's not that structured anymore after the moons fell.  
  
[sacriqueen] and eraserhead's ignoring me?? Σ(-`Д´-ﾉ；)ﾉ  
  
[tetsuya965] I'm sorry, I don't think I understand very well. Did you say multiple moons fell?  
  
[10blackerasers] ah, i guess septimal predates you, huh? don't worry about it tetsuya. messy business, that. did we answer your question properly, or   
  
>>is there anything you want us to clear up for you? queenie's kind of noisy but she knows some stuff too.  
  
[sacriqueen] eraserhead is a ****!  
  
-[modbot] has given [sacriqueen] a warning for: use of profanity-  
  
[sacriqueen] (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻ !!  
  
[tetsuya965] Well…  
  
>> Hrm.  
  
[10blackerasers] it's all right if you can't think of anything right away. we've got plenty of time.  
  
[tetsuya965] Is it unheard of for a blank to pair with another person with a Name after the termination of the first partnership?  
  
[makimaki] there was this kinda infamous blank fighter who did it, but that's before your time i think  
  
[10blackerasers] if you're thinking of s____ from the septimal incidents then yeah, tetsuya wouldn't have heard of him. it's a thing, though. kind of frowned on, but a thing.  
  
>> you're technically only supposed to have one partner, but rules like that are kind of just formalities  
  
[sacriqueen] wasn't there that one time that sacrifice from aichi ended up with two fighters, though?  
  
[makimaki] oh yeah, i remember hearing about that! do you know what happened to them?  
  
[sacriqueen] i think it didn't last very long, though. apparently her first fighter was terminally ill and had a best friend who was a blank  
  
>> so they put their heads together and agreed to bond and for a little while she had two fighters and was basically unstoppable  
  
>> then her named fighter took a turn for the worse and died two years ahead of schedule  
  
[10blackerasers] i'm guessing it didn't end well after that.  
  
[makimaki] oh, it was that case.  
  
[sacriqueen] ?? wait, you know something about that, maki-tan?  
  
[makimaki] i didn't think anything of it because she only had a single fighter at the time and seemed like any other sacrifice, but  
  
>> there was chatter on the grapevine when she passed away  
  
>> her fighter got committed, and I think they said he was a blank but that was pretty much all I heard about it  
  
[tetsuya965] That sounds rather ominous.  
  
[10blackerasers] i think there are probably a bunch of blank units out there who have had at least one partner, though  
  
>> and we've just never heard of them because they've been living perfectly ordinary happy lives and nothing's been particularly newsworthy  
  
>> you hear the worst stuff first because we're nosy as **** and there's not much of a formal communications system since septimal fell apart  
  
-[modbot] has given [10blackerasers] a warning for: use of profanity-  
  
[10blackerasers] aw nuts i forgot this thing was set on family-friendly mode.  
  
>> the organization had some pretty shady stuff going on, but without them a bunch of kids out there wake up with names and no idea what's going on  
  
>> some of the savvier ones will look stuff up, at least  
  
>> and i know there are the odd schools that have programs for kids with potentials, though those are sometimes kind of on the shady side too.  
  
[tetsuya965] … What do you mean by "shady," exactly, 10-san?  
  
[10blackerasers] lol 10-san that's a new one  
  
>> i like it!  
  
>> no but shady like turning them into battle machines and stuff.  
  
>> i mean yeah fighter-sacrifice pairs are able to engage in spell battles but there's not really much of a point.  
  
>> what are they fighting for? septimal used to have an answer to that, but they don't exist anymore so as far as i'm concerned there's not really a reason to unless it's for you or your partner's health and safety.  
  
>> but i guess if you fight someone without the potential it's not a battle anymore, it's just a lynching.  
  
[tetsuya965] I see.  
  
[10blackerasers] ah, well, don't worry too much about it. you seem like you've got a good head on your shoulders.  
  
>> you'll be fine.  
  
[tetsuya965] Thank you.  
  
[makimaki] so, tetsuya, are you a fighter or a sacrifice?  
  
[sacriqueen] and they say i'm nosy. maki-tannn, that's private remember?  
  
[makimaki] oops. sorry, tetsuya! curiosity got the better of me!! orz  
  
[tetsuya965] It's all right. I'm a Sacrifice, I think.  
  
[sacriqueen] you think?  
  
[tetsuya965] It's a little complicated, but it seems to be the case.  
  
[sacriqueen] well, good luck and i hope you and your fighter click well.  
  
>> if you end up with a hottie post pics! ☆⌒（＊＾∇゜）  
  
[10blackerasers] oi, queenie, you don't even know how old tetsuya is. don't go asking somebody who could be a minor for pictures!!  
  
[sacriqueen] oh **** i forgot orz sorry tetsuya!  
  
-[modbot] has banned [sacriqueen] for 10 minutes for: usage of profanity-  
  
[10blackerasers] … welp, there goes queenie  
  
>> it's getting pretty late, huh? you planning to stick around for a bit, tetsuya, or do you have to get going?  
  
[tetsuya965] I should probably be going. I have an early day tomorrow.  
  
>> Could you tell sacri-san that I said thank you for the well-wishes?  
  
[10blackerasers] lol sure thing, i'll let queenie know when she gets back in here.  
  
[tetsuya965] Thank you. Good night!  
  
[makimaki] g'night, tetsuya! good luck with your fighter!  
  
[10blackerasers] good night, tetsuya!  
  
-[tetsuya965] has left the room-


End file.
